While it may seem as if we didn’t necessarily need another big screen take on Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” (after all, the novel has been adapted for film, television, radio, and more over thirty times already), that doesn’t mean that we didn’t want to see Andrea Arnold’s take on the material. The provocative and deeply talented Fish Tank director is uniquely suited to infusing such a classic tale of love, desire, and betrayal with new blood, even as she sticks to old school styling to craft her vision.
When we saw the film at Sundance, I called Arnold’s Wuthering Heights “a stunning mediation on love, loss, memory, and pain” and “a work of great visual art,” even as I found it difficult to enter into in an emotional manner. And yet. The term “haunting” gets tossed around a lot when describing all sorts of films, but Arnold’s film is truly best described in such a way ‐ it haunts, it linger, it doesn’t let you go. Even months after first seeing it, her traditional take on the doomed love of the wretched Cathy and Heathcliff sticks with me. Get a taste of that (and all sorts of stirring shots of moors, flapping fabric, and howling characters) with a new trailer for the film after the break.
Wuthering Heights arrives on October 5th. Consider it to be highly recommended. [Vulture, via The Film Stage]
